COMMON THINGS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 72

COMMON THINGS.

It is not for lack of teachers that w» have not yet learned the beauty of com- ■ moil things. The strenuous Kipling, I ranging from the rough rhymes of' Bar! rack Room Ballads ' to the splendid austerity of " The Recessional," reverently acknowledges in his " Workers' Hymn" — • It is enough that through Thy grace I saw naught common on this earth. Not ignored or glorified or overlooked, you notice, but greater far — Saw naught common on this earth. It is an odious word this ''common*; simple enough in itself, we have made it the hallmark of depreciation. Are not the most beautiful things in the world also the commonest ? What is more common than motherhood ? — mother and children all round us, thick as blackberries — yet what is more beautiful than mother love ? What greater or prouder destiny can a woman desire than to be the mother of good sons and daughters? And yet you know it is " awfully common !" What" is more common than work; and do we not all work? — the rich man with his riches perhaps harder than the poor man with his poverty. Yet here, too, we bring in the word " common " to solace our silly pride, and by its use create an aristocracy of labour in lifting all that is mental high above all that is manual. Yet Leonardo da Vinci did not disdain to work at the commonest technical details of his art. It would scarcely be possible to find two men, or poets, more dissimilar than the tough-fibred Kipling and the gentle Longfellow, yet in this matter of common things they are at one. Longfellow's most beautiful poems are of the allencompassing common or everyday things of life — he saw the beauty of these themes, touched them, drew out their

isfier meanings, glorified them for us. " Resignation," " The Fire of Driftwood," " Bain in Summer," are but instances of the most obvious. In ".The Builders" he touches a regret which I think most of us have felt— do feel — In the «lder days of Art, Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part; Fox the gods are everywhere. Our common sense tells us how impossible it is to go back to past conditions in anything; for good or ill we must always be changing, always going on. Newrtheless, we long instinctively for those " elder days of art," when labour, even in the commonest things, meant the impress of the individual rather than the soulless precision of the machine, and the cult of the ready-made had not destroyed the spirit of personal pride in labour. It is in " The Builders " that Longfellow reminds vs — Nothing useless is, or low; Bach thing in its place is best. The beauty of fitness, the repose of harmony which dignifies things animate and inanimate when they are suitable to their surroundings.. Common things in Nature may be — are — an immense, a never-end-ing joy to us when once we think about them and realise them. But to really love Nature and, so to speak, *' get the best ~we can for our money," "we must be able to admire the common things, the everyday aspects which are " common " — free — to all of us. It is not of much use to pride ourselves on our appreciation ot scenery, for instance, if we must go to Mil ford Sound or Lake Ada, the Cold Lakes or the Hermitage, to get up the enthusiasm. What, to us, is commoner than green o' the grass, blue o' the sky and sea, sweep of yellow tussock, mysteries of rainfolded hills? Yet if you' come to think of it, what more wonderful and blessed than 4he mere fact that the common colours with which Nature surrounds us are what they are-; that we are enconlpassed with delicate harmonies of blues and greens and browns; are rested and soothed by greys and monotones ? Could you summon up a more hideously successful nightmare than one in which a landscape of crimson sweitered under a sky of yellow? But to be thankful for common beauties when once we have made ourselves realise them is yet another point. Violet Jacobs in " Aythan Waring " has a true word to say on this : — " r fo see the glory of common things is to speak, as an equal, with life; but we may forget Jhat to different divisions of men different things are common. It is surprising how romantic the digging of the soil will appear >to the man who has never dug it." So if we Dominion dwellers would find real reason for appreciation of the common joys of fresh air, sunshine, field and forest, tussock and .mountain which are so much a part of everyday life that we scarcely notice them, we must realise howtrue it is that " to different divisions ot men different things are common." In this especial matter of our natural surroundings all that is " common " to us would be strange and rare and beautiful to hundreds of thousands of weary citybred toilers in the older lands, where men herd together, fighting from birth to death for mere existence. It is impossible to over-estimate the help and comfort, the restfulness and soothing that is gained from the ability to realise the beauty of common things so that, as Kipling says, one may see Naught common on this earth. And as with beauty, so it must be with feeling; with the inner things of the heart as with the outward things of the vision. If we have no personal conception of beauty (of whatever kind it may be) rarity takes the place of beauty — a fatal mistake. We plant a puzzle-the-monkey. whose grotesquerie shuts out the lovely view of plain and river, and are proud of the rare ugliness which hides the common beauty. The Auracaria cost numey ; the landscape is free. We overlook with indifference the everyday common courtesies or affections of our own people and expend ourselves in the rarer hospitalities and entertainments of other people; or it may be that, on the other hand, we aye so chary of praise and encouragement to our own home circle that we send them out hungry and thirsty for appreciation and understanding from strangers. Yet ye are not altogether without excuse in that we overlook and undervalue the common things of life. Everything becomes monotonous by repetition. All continuou.3 impressions become faint. The position is inevitable : we can only make the best of it. Common as love is, what would life be without it, dear heart? Common as work is, how should we relish leisure or hope for rest without it, fellow-worker? Common as are sorrow and suffering, how should we know the fulness of joy without them ? The common things are the dearest, the common words the sweetest, the common heritage' — humanity — the mo«t precious. When we have learnt to see the beauty, value the -orth, and appreciate the true meaning oi the common things we shall surely have gone far towards solving the secret of a great and common joy.